'Pain make man think. Thought make man wise. Wisdom make life endurable' : Sakini, in "The Tea House of the August Moon" by John Patrick, (1953)

Thursday, July 5, 2018

Gary Younge - Rudderless and riven by Brexit, the Tories have only one ambition left

The purpose of
the Brexit referendum
had precious little to do with the EU; it was simply the latest in a litany of
efforts to quell the decades-long psychodrama within the Conservative party. Not only did it
achieve the opposite – deepening and exacerbating the rancour within the party
– it spread the infection to the country as a whole. For the past two years our
government has been paralysed by an internal party feud that has held the
nation’s future hostage.

“There are two kinds
of European nations,” the Danish finance minister, Kristian Jensen, said last year. “There are small nations and
there are countries that have not yet realised they are small nations.”
Witnessing that realisation dawn on this government has been painful to watch;
anticipating the consequences for generations to come has been excruciating. So on Friday at
Chequers the government will do what it has been doing for the past two years:
spend an inordinate amount of time negotiating with itself before producing a
“solution” that is unworkable, only to take it to Brussels and discover it is also
unacceptable. The problem is not just that they don’t have a rabbit; they don’t
even have a hat.

Through a series of
self-inflicted wounds the Conservative party has reduced itself to this:
hovering between delusional and deranged, bluster and buffoonery. Insisting on
concessions that have not been offered; suggesting solutions that have already
been rejected; showing up to negotiations with nothing to offer; refusing to
concede anything, only then to capitulate to everything. A party that has won
an outright majority once in the last six elections – and held it for all of
two years – while averaging 35% of the vote during that time, is pursuing its
civil war and we are all collateral damage. If it were a dog you’d put it down;
if it were a wedding you’d call it off. Not only for their own sake, but to
prevent the harm they might do to others.

For Conservatives this
crisis is no longer just about Europe. Brexit has thrown into question their
raison d’etre as a party... read more: